\ 



1 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

PRESENTED BY 



UNITED STATES OP AMEEIOA, i 



V 




ALBANY. TUESDAY, JAN. 27, 1874. 



The Effect of their Destruction upon 
Climate and Vegetation. 



A Plea in Behalf of Trees, 



The following able aad iateresting' paper on 
the preservation of forests and the planting of 
timber was read at the recent annual meeting 
of the State Agricultural Society. Its im- 
portance deserves circulation and careful 
study. 

ON THE PKESERVATION OF FORESTS AKD THE 
PLANTING OF TIMBER. 

y 

•-v,.BY FEANKMN B. HOUGH. 

When the region now included in the State 
of New York first became known to Euro- 
peans it was covered with a heavy growth of 
forests. The only exceptions were parts oocu- 
pied by rocks, marsh or river intervale, the 
beaver meadows here and there along the 
streams, and now and then a little patch of 
open ground where the native Indians tilled 
the soil in their rude and simple way, by the 
side of some favorite lake or stream, which 
afforded the best opportunities for subsistence 
by hunting and fishing. 

This forest opposed the first resistance to 
the labors of civilized man, and must be 
cleared off before the first field could be sown 
or the first fruit tree pli*. ted. 

Although forest products ULiordgd from the 
beginning an important class of commodities 
needed in the old world, and an abundance of 
conveniences of greatest use in the new, still 
the apparently inexhaustible supply seems to 
have licensed an unlimited waste. The cash 
receipts for potash would go far towards 
j meeting the first payments for land, and so 
I the work of destruction, begun Avith neces- 
sity, went on as if there were no hereafter, 
I and wanton waste had made sad havoc with 



'our timber long befo're it came to be realized 
that even its conversion into lumber for ex- 
portation, and use in the cities, was more 
economical than burning it to ashes on the 
ground. 

Through the first two hundred years no 
other fuel was thought of any where in our 
country, and even now, except along our 
thoroughfares of canal and railroad traffic, 
wood is still the principal or only fuel. The 
construction of these lines of communication, 
while it has favored the introduction of 
mineral coal, and thus reduced the demand 
for fire wood, has at the same time opened 
channels for transportation, and stimulated 
the demand for lumber and other forest pro- 
ducts is a still greater degree ; so that if there 
is now less waste, there is a greater and rapidly 
increasing consumption. If the asheries, once 
so numerous, have mostly disappeared, the 
scm mills and tanneries have in like ratio mul- 
tiplied, and the havoc to our forests has gone 
on until even these have in many places ex- 
hausted the supplies around them. The soil, 
indeed, has been opened to cultivation; yet 
over extensive areas scarcely a tree has been 
left to shelter it from the sun and the winds. 
I invite your attention to some of the conse- 
quences which may be expected to follow this 
improvident waste, and will venture to pro- 
pose some conservative measures tending to 
compensate for this coulinued exhaustion of 
supply. 

Were it not for the fact that a part of our tim- 
ber and lumber has been for many years deriv- 
ed from Canada and the Northwestern States, 
the want of these essential articles would ere 
this have been severely felt, and at present 
rates, these extra-limited sources must in a few 
years become exhausted, and we may realize, 
when too late, the folly of not providing a 
seasonable and sufficient remedy. 

We will first notice the demand for wood 
by railroads. According to the last report of 
the State Engineer and Surveyor, we have in 
this State about 6,000 miles of roads finished 
upon main lines, and 3,000 upon branches, 
making for these, and for sidings and 
double tracks, about 11,000 miles to keep 
supplied with ties, to say nothing of the 
rapid ini. o;. from year to year. This single 
item demanded ^0,675,000 pieces, which on 
the average must be renewed once in six 
years, requiring an annual supply of 4,445,- 
830 pieces, or about two and a quarter mil- 
lion of trees. The cost of fuel on railroads 
was about seven and a half million of dol- 



4 



lars. We have no statement of the number 
of locomotives, but allowing half to be wood 
burners, and wood at $4 to the cord, there 
will be required for railroad fuel alone, about 
a million of cords of wood annually. Add 
to these items the amount of lumber and tim- 
ber used for fences, bridges, and other struc- 
tures, and we shall find that it requires not 
less than 50,000 acres of woodland a year, to 
supply the demand for railroad use alone' in 
the State of New York. 

If we take into account the vast consump- 
tion for farm fences, for fuel and for building 
purposes, and the vast amount required to 
supply the various manufactories of wooden 
wares and implements, and which are steadily 
increasing in number and magnitude, we shall 
begin to realize the stern realities before us, 
and should stop to consider the remedies that 
may be applied. 

There are also considerations of the influ- 
ence of the forests upon climate, and results i 
that have been observed to follow their de- 
struction, which claim our careful attention. 
It is a matter of common observation, that as 
our woodlands are cleared away the swamps 
and rills which feed the streams, diminish or 
disappear. Mills built upon streams which 
in the early settlement of the country, afforded 
an abundant water power throughout the 
year, must now stop from want of water in 
the summer months, or use steam power dur- 
ing a part of the year. The feeders of our 
State Canals diminish, and new sources of 
supply must be sought. Springs and wells 
fail, and the increasing population of our 
cities and large towns, finds more and more 
difficulty every year, in obtaining thesupplies 
of pure and wholesome water, so essential to 
health and happiness. 

In warmer climates, the effects of this cut- 
ting off of forests become still more apparent, 
and we -will notice two or three instances in 
which the disasters following this improvi- 
dent destruction of timber have been most 
sadly realized. The Danish island of Santa 
Cruz, in the West Indies, some twenty-five 
years ago was a garden of freshness, beauty and 
fertility. Woods covered the hills, trees were 
everywhere abundant, and the rains profuse 
and frequent. A gentleman of my acquaint- 
ance who visited the island when in its great- 
est beauty, was induced by the memory of its 
loveliness, to resort thither a year or two 
since, at a corresponding season of the year, 
to gratify his love of botanical study, and 
revel in the floral beauties which his former 



experience had led him to anticipate. He 
' found a third of the island an utter desert. 
The slurt, copious showers which frequently 
occurred in former times, had ceased, and the 
process of desiccation was gradually advanc- 
ing, leaving a barreu waste except along the 
sbore, where a narrow belt of green marked 
the presence of the shrubs that flourish along 
the high water mark of the sea shore. The 
desolation came slowly but irresistibly. First 
the sugar canes failed— then a meagre pastur- 
age was maintained for a few years, and then 
the desert, with its sparse and prickly vegeta- 
tion of cactus and other worthless plants. 
Some attempt had been made to stay the im- 
pending ruin, and one planter had set out a 
thousand trees — but everyone failed. 

The island of St. Thomas, some thirty miles 
distant, is somewhat similarly affected, but , 
being more broken, it receives more rain. 
Fifty miles west is Porto Rico, largely cover- 
ed with mountains, well supplied with for- 
ests, and abundantly watered by rains. 

The island of Curacoa was, within the mem- 
ory of living persons, a garden of fertility— 
but now, whole plantations with their once 
beautiful villas and terraced gardens, arc noth- 
ing but an arid waste; and yet sixty miles 
away, along the Spanish main, tbe rankest 
vegetation covers the hills, and the burdened 
clouds shower down al)undant blessings. 

The causes of these changes are directly at- 
tributable to the cutting down of timber, and 
in the smaller islands of tropical seas, where 
irrigation is impossible, the injury may be al- 
together beyond the power of man to repair. 

Palestine was anciently described as "a 
good land, a land of brooks of water, of foun- 
tains and depths that spring out of valley and 
hills." (Deut. vlii, 7.) It was "a land that flow- 

eth with milk and honey a land of hills 

and valleys, and that drinketh water of the 
rain of heaven." (Deut. xi, 9-11.) But the 
vegetation which these conditions imply, has 
largely disappeared, and with it in propor- 
tional degree, "the rains of heaven." 

These instances might be multiplied to a 
great extent — the experience of the world in 
all climates tending to establish the same great 
fact, that sterility and drouth are the natural 
consequences of the destructioir of forests, 
i There may be exceptional cases in which a 
country exposed to warm ocean winds may 
receive an adequate amount of rain-fall irre- 
spective of its woodlands or open fields, and 
we must admit that the normal quantity is 
■ much dependent upon distance from the sea, 



and the influence of mountains, and otlier 
modifying circumstances. The usual quanti- 
ty of rain, for example, in our State, is about 
45 inches a year at New York city, about 
40 at Albany, about 38 at Buffalo, and about 
33 along the St. Lawiance. 

We are equally justified in saying that the 
restoration of timber after it has been once 
cut off, tends to bring back the wonted show- 
ers of sylvan times, and some instances of this 
will be noticed. 

The celebrated philosopher, Humboldt> 
towards the close of the last century, visited 
the valley of Aragua, in Venezuela, which 
lies land-locked, at no great distance from the 
coast, but without an outlet, the drainage 
being into a beautiful lake at the bottom of 
the valley, some 1,300 feet above tide level. 
The country around had been cleared and 
settled, and the inhabitants began to notice 
from year to year a wasting away of \ 
these waters, as if they had found some outlet, j 
Villages on the lake shore appeared to recede, | 
and islands, before unknown, arose above the 
surface. Tlie felling of trees which crowned 
the slopes and crests of the mountains, was 
assigned as the cause of the evidently decreas- j 
ing amount of rain-fall, by which, says this j 
eminent observer, " men in all climates seem ^ 
to bring upon future generations two calami- 
lies at once — a want of fuel and a scarcitj'^ of 
water."* 

A civil war followed, in the course of which, j 
agriculture was neglected, and forest vegeta- 
tion again returned, so that a traveler twenty- 
five years afterv/ards described the lake as 
again rising, and plantations along its banks 
submerged and abandoned. The streams, 
which in times of former drouth, had been 
drained dry for the purposes of irrigation, 
were now in fall flow, the copious rains ren- 
dering irrigation no longer necessai-y. 

In Utah we observe a somewhat similar re- 
sult. It is well known to all present that ag- 
riculture has chiefly been maintained in that 
territory by irrigation, and that the construc- 
tion and maintenance of canals for bringing 
the mountain streams across the plains has 
from the first been a subject of constant care 
and expense. In 1866, they had 127,798 acres 
under irrigation, and the amount expended 
during one year was $303,863.77 or about $3.73 
to the acre.f All observers agree that the 

* Humboldt. Vol. V., p. 1V3. „ 
•I- uf this, $136,610.a5 was on canals, $3iviU-.-i< on 
dams, $m 696.57 on cleaning out and repaire, ana , 
$7^,853. 15 on private canals. Rep. Deseret Ag. ana j 
Mfac. Soc, 1867, p. 2. ' 



climate is improving under the increasing 
breadth of vegetation which this system of 
cultivati on has created. IMuch less water is 
needed than formerly to produce a given ef- 
fect, the rain-fall is increasing, and the waters 
of the great Salt Lake stand about twelve feet 
above the old high water marks, and are still 
rising. t The industrious Mormons have a 
right to expect, that as the breadth of cultiva- 
tion extends, the rains will increase in the 
same ratio. That the air will become more 
humid as trees are planted,, and that aself-sus- 
taining amount of rain fall may in time be ob- 
tained. 

These results afford a hopeful promise to 
the treeless regions of the other territories 
where nothing but water is required to bring 
fertility to the soil, and with the vegetation 
which this invites, a humid atmosphere and 
showers of rain. 

The Hon. Paul A. Ohadbourne, President 
i of Williams College, in an address before the 
Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, publish- 
ed in their report of 1871-3, (p. 61-9,) says, 
that Salt Lake contains nearly or quite as 
much water as it did when the Mormons came, 
and that it has risen at least one foot a year 
for the last ten years: 

" But it is not in Salt Lake Valley alone, or j 
immediately around the lake, but in all the 
valleys around there, and throughout thatter- ; 
ritory, that the water is increasing m quanti- 
ty Capt. Stover, who went from the State of 
Maine, told me, that ten years ago he cut grass 
on the borders of Stockton Lake, where now ; 

the water is forty feef deep When you 1 

pass up and down throughout the Territory i 
as I have done this summer, you will find evi- 
dence that in all the streams the amount of 
water is constantly increasing, and that the 
Mormons regard it as a direct interposition of 
God." 

In speaking of this change, Mr. C. was in- 
formed by Brigham Young that twelve years 
before they had planted a settlement where, 
by careful measurement, there was found water 
for only twelve families. Now there is a 
population of fifteen hundred souls at that 
place and an abundance of water for all. 
There is now much less timber on the moun- 
tains and in the canyons than formerly. But 
-the evaporation has been greatly checked by 
cultivation and by groves of young trees. This 
writer does not think that more rains fall now 
than formerly, but that evaporation is less, 
and the general humidity much greater, thus 
checking'^he influence of drying wmds. 



> E.iiterial c irrespondence of the Country Gen- 
tlemen, Nov. 27, 1873, • 



j The influence of forests upon the dews is 
important; and depends upon the greater hu- 
midity and coolness imparted to the air around 
them, and to the shelter from the winds which 
they furnish. In the immediate shade of a 

. a tree, the radiation from the earth may be in 
part returned, and less may be deposited; but 
a little further off, the humid influence of a 
; grove is decidedly observed. To this may 
perhaps be ascribed the freshness of pastures 
interspersed with clumps of trees, at a time 
when a naked pasture will be parched and 
brown. § 

We should not forget to mention the rela- 
tion existing between malaria and growing 
trees. Fortunately in our State diseases occa- 
sioned by malarious .exhalations have, in a- i 
great degree, disappeared from the central 
and western portions, since the decaying mould 
: and rotten wood exposed to the air in the new 
clearings have become thoroughly decom- 
posed. But in warmer climates, where rank 
j vegetation is allowed to decay in wet places, 
this poisonous element acquires its greatest 
virulence. Such are the Pontine Marshes near 
the city of Rome, where an overflow from 
obstructions in the Tiber, and neglect of 
\ agriculture has brought on an insalubrity 
! throughout a once healthy and fertile region, 
! which ages of patient industry can scarcely 
redeem. It has been found, that next after 
the drainage of the spongy morass, which a 
luxuriant and neglected growth of herbage 
had occasioned, the planting of trees in belts 
and groves, affords the best means of absorb- 
ing the poison, and preventing its dispersion 
by the winds. The cutting down of a forest, 
which for ages had covered the slopes of a 
hill between the city and the marshes, let in 
the malaria upon a part of the city where it 
was before unknown. 

The Eucalyptus, an Australian tree of most 
vigorous growth iu warm countries, has been 
of late especially noticed as capable of absorb- 
ing the poisonous exhalations of marshes. A 
recent writer || gives many instances of its suc- 
cessful treatment of malaria-. It is asserted 
tbat this tree will absorb from the earth ten i 
times its weight of water daily, giving ofl { 

sin India dew is deposited near rivulets when 
all around is perfectly dry. Tlie limit of deposi- 
tion was but firtaeu or twenty feet. — [Col, Bykes, 
In Transactions of Royal Soc, 185U, p, 35i. 

il Monthly Kepnrt Departraent of Agriculture, 
December, 1Z7i. 



' with the renovated emanations of its foliage a 
camphorated aroma, alike antiseptic and 
agreeable. 

Somewhat similar properties are claimed for 
; the long-leaved pine and other trees, as well 
as. for the sunflower, planted in belts along 
the border of marshes. Wherever intermit- 
tent fevers appear to be occasioned by 
marshes, the planting of trees along the margin 
of the wet lands, so as to break the winds 
passing over them, would, in all probability, 
be followed by a decided abatement, if not a 
complete suppression of the evil. It is to be j 
remembered that prevailing sickness from 
malaria seldom appears in our climate so long 
as the country is timbered, but only as decay- 
ing ve.getable matter is exposed to the sun. 

It is quite probable that electrical conditions 
dependent upon vegetation may have a de- 
cided influence upon the precipitation of rain. 
We know that a hispid plant, insulated and 
heavily charged with electricity, quickly loses 
< its charge, and that every point of a leaf or 
plant is an agency for receiving or passing oft 
an electrical current. The telegraph wire is 
robbed of its message in passing through a 
tree top, if contact with the foliage is allowed; 
and I have no doubt but that a house sur- | 
rounded by high trees is better guarded ! 
against lightning than if protected by a patent 
lightning rod of average construction, 
j There is scarcely a change of condition or 
' of place in nature, in which electrical phe- | 
nomena may not be noticed, when carefully 
I observed. The passage of water into vapor, 
its condensatioa into rain, the fi-iction of the 
winds, a change from heat to cold, or from , 
cold to heat, combustion and slow decay, are ' 
all attended by electrical phenomena. In its . 
ordinary conditions the air is positively elcc- 
trifled, but in fogs, rain and snow, and some- 1 
: times in cloudy weather it is negative. The 
conditions change with the hours of the day 
and the season of the year. The facility 
with which electricity passes from points or 
is received by them, suggests the probability 
that forest vegetation must have a marked in- 
fluence upon these conditions and changes. 

I should not omit to notice the benefit of 
copses and belts of woodland scattered among 
cultivated fields, for the shelter they afibrd to 
I insectivorous birds. A very large proportion 



\ 



of our common song birds live upon insects 
injurious to the farmer, and when sheltered [ 
and protected they become his efficient help- 
ers in saving from harm the harvest of his 
fields, working free of charges and boarding 
themselves. 

At a Land and Forest Congress held at 
Vienna during the past summer, at which 
some three hundred delegates from nearly 
every civilized country were present, the 
importance of birds to the agriculturist 
was earnestly discussed, and a series of 
resolutions offered tending to protect and en- 
courage, them, by asking from all governments 
prohibitions and penalties against their injury 
or destruction. These useful allies of the 
field should be alike protected by stringent 
game laws and by a generous and appreciating 
public sentiment, favoring abundant oppor- 
tunities for nesting in groves suited to their 
habits, and secure from harm. 

Some, like the robin, make their homes in 
the orchard, and in ihe trees around om- dwel- 
lings; but many more of great utility, love 
the seclusion of groves apart from human 
habitations, and we lose their services, where 
these shelters do not exist. 

The records of rain-fall kept at various sta. , 
tions in this State and the United States, do | 
not justify us in believing that any consid- ! 
erable amount of change has occurred in the ' 
total amount from year to year, although the 
distribution of rain and snow among the seas- 
ons is in many cases more irregular, as the 
country becomes older, and the wood lands 
less. Seasons of unusual drouth may succeed 
each other for several- years together, and dis- 
astrous floods appear to be of more frequent 
occurrence now than formerly. 

The great source of supply of aqueous vapor, 
which foitus rain, is from the sea itself. The 
evaporation from its surface is constant, and 
over broad acres, under a tropical sun, the 
amount raised as vapor and borne landward 
by the winds is immense, and may be regarded i 
as nearly uniform from year to year. If the | 
surface were all water, we may readily believe 
that the changes of weather would follow m 
strictly regular succession, like day and night, 
and like winter and summer. But as a part 
of the surface is land, and of very uneaqual 
contour, we find the vicissitudes of the 
weather continually changing, froni causes 
not yet fully understood. In some regions 
rains are altogether unknown; in others, they 



are profuse, and in others scanty or abundant, 
as the causes which influence their precipita- 
tions are changed by the operations of nature, 
or through the agency of man. 

Aqueous vapor is always present in our at- 
mosphere, and when rain is most needed it is of- 
ten in quantities sufficient for every waDt,'if 
the temperature from any cause could be suf- 
ficiently reduced. This vapor is not usually 
perceptible to the senses, being held in sus- 
pension 'by the air. The capacity for absorb- 
ing vapor increases with the temperature, so 
that at the freezing point, the air can support 
but a one hundred and sixtieth part of its 
weight of vapor, while at 86o, it can hold a 
fortieth part, and at 113" a twentieth part. If 
from the common air, under a glass receiver, 

' we exhaust a part,' the remainder will expand 
to fill the whole space, and in so doing cools, 
and its capacity for holding vapor In suspen- 
sion diminishes, until it may reach the point 
of saturation, and a dew will begin to form on 
the inner side of the glass, the air within being 
obscured by tog. The temperature at which 
this dew begins to appear is called the dew 
point, and to this degree must the air be always 
reduced before clouds and rain can be formed. 
In meteorological observations, the absolute 
and relative humidity are usually determined 
from a pair of thermometers, one covered 
with muslin and moistened with water. This 
instrument when wet, presently falls to a sta- 
tionary degree, which is the dew point. The 
differences of reading with the aid of tables, 
readily afford the means of knowing the abso- 
lute humidity or total amount of vapor in the 
air, or its elastic force, represented by the 
height of a column of mercury which this 
force would support, and the reloMve humidity 
or ratio of the quantity of vapor present, ex 
pressed in decimals, absolute degrees being 
zero, and saturation 1.00. 

There have not hitherto been taken within 
our State, any continued series of these psy- 
chrometical observations through many years 
of time. But to illustrate the subject, I have 
prepared from the records of the Toronto Mag- 
netic and Meteorological Observatory, which 
have been kept with great accuracy under uni- 
form rules, for over twenty years, some tables 
which give results quite similar to those we 
might expect in our State. The first of these 
exhiljits the mean monthly elastic force of the 

I vapor, and the second the mean monthly hu- 

I midity: — 



I 



1. Mean ELASTiciTr of Aqueous Vapoe at To- 

BONTO Observatory. 
(The numbers show the height of a mercurial 

columQ in inches which the elastic force of 

vapor would support). 



If 



I 

is 
i 
i 



2 



iii 



lippliiiipiiliil^ 
iiiiimiiiiiiiimm'l 



II. Meaj^ Humidity of Atmosphere at Toronto 
Observatory. 

(The numbers shew the relative amount of moist- 
ure, 00 being complete dryness ana 1.00 satura- 
tion). 





m 

^m.-Si -86 -85 

1855. -83 -80 -81 

1856. -78 -76 '74 

1857. -89 -84 .77 
18"v8.-78 77 -69 
1859. -81 -79 -75 
1860 -81 -81 -71 

1861. -88 -84 -80 

1862. -81 -84 -83 

1863. -85 -83 -78 

1864. -83 -83 -80 
J815.-8] -83 -79 

1866. -83 -81 -77 

1867. -83 -81 -78 

1868. 83 -81 -74 
18H9.-80 - 80 ■« 
1870 -83 -80 -8 
1871. -84 -77 -76 
1873. -80 '79 -75 



80 -74 -74 

73 -65 -78 
75 -71 '79 

74 -74 -77 
66 -69 -69 
63 67 -69 
74 -76 -71 
73 -69 -69 
73 -65 -66 
■68 -69 -71 
■75 -75 -63 
■73 -69 70 
65 -62 -73 
•73 -73 
•71 -75 



71 
74 
•67 •7t 



67 -63 
•69 
■67 



•f2 



•73 



■71 '73 -79 

•79 ^74 79 

•69 -73 75 

•78 -77 -78 

■70 -70 -74 

■70 -70 -75 

•73 76 -74 

•73 -78 -79 

•73 -74 ^83 

•.. ^76 -75 

•66 -73 -75 

•65 -69 -75 

•73 •ra -78 

•69 ^70 -77 
■77 -76 -79 
74 ^72 :79 

•74 -78 



■73 



■80 -80 
•75 •Is 

1! •If, 

•83 ^79 
•82 •SO 
•80 -80 
•80 ^78 
•77 -77 
■75 -80 
•73 -75 
•77 :81 
•78 'St 
■79 -79 
•73 -76 
•77 -76 



.. -79 
80 79 

■so ^79 
■81 -73 
•ST -74 
•84 -77 
•79 ^78 
•83 -77 
•83 ^77 
•82 ^76 
•79 75 
•79 -75 
•77 -74 
•83 76 
•83 -77 
•83 •76 



Highest 
■89 -84 


•85 


■80 


■76 


•79 


•79 


•78 


•80 


•83 


•84 -87 


•79 


Lowest. 

78 ^76 


■69 


•63 


•63 


•63 


•60 


•68 


•71 


•73 


•74 ^77 


•73 


Mean. 

■83 'SI 


•77 


■71 


•69 


•73 


•71 


■73 


•7S 


•77 


•78 •SI 


.76 



la woodlands the soil is sheltered from the 
sun, and is usually covered by a cushion of 
decaying leaves. This tends to equalize the 
temperature, making it -warmer in winter and 
cooler in summer than in open fields. Being 
cooler in summer, it requires less change of 
temperature to bring the atmosphere to the 
clear point, and hence the influence of wood- 
lands upon rains. Besides this, when in 
foliage the evaporation from the leaves due to 
the vital action of the trees, and the drying off 
of water from dews and rain, afford a direct 
cooling process, from the well known law of 
nature that nothing can pass from a denser to 
a rarer form without losing heat. 

Being sheltered from the winds, the snows 
lie uniformly upon the ground in a forest, and 
wasting away more slowly, they tend to cool 
the air around them, and thus prevent the in- 
jury that very warm days in early spring 
might otherwise cause to fruit. This retard- 
ing of vegetation in spring is similar in its 
effects to that from large bodies of water, on 
the leeward side of which, as is well-known, 
the best fruit districts in the country are 
found. 

Besides these effects, woodlands sbade the 
sources of rills, and are a screen against drying 
winds. In fact, such is the amount of moist- 
ure exhaled from a forest in full leaf that a 
dry wind could not pass over a woodland of 
considerable extent Avithout acquiring a de- 
gree of humidity favorable to the cultivated 
lands beyond. 

^Ye must probably admit, that less rain in 
a shower reaches the earth in a forest than in 
an open field, since much of it is intercepted 
by the leaves, and in warm ■n-eather soon evap- 
orated. But such as does reach the earth, 
being in a damp and sheltered place, does not 
run quickly off, gullying the hill sides and 
washing the soil into tjie streams, as in an 
open country, and inundating the valleys by 
sudden freshets. It sinks into the earth to 
reappear as springs, or is appropriated by the 
tender and juicy vegetation of the under 
growth, and the spongy and luxuriant growth 
of the swamps. The soil being more pervious 
to the water, in fact, absorbs much more than 
the sun-baked surface of clay in an open field, 
and hence we never hear of the drying up of 
streams, until the country is cleared of its 
forests. 



V 



la ordinary conditions, a rain gauge on the | 
ground receivfis more rain than on a house top, 
and the latter more than one placed on a 
lofty tower. This can only be explained by 
admitting that rain drops increase in volume 
as they fall through an atmosphere saturated 
with vapor. Yet nothing is more common ; 
than a fall of rain on hilly vroodlands, -while 
"all signs fail" on the open plains below, and 
the rainless clouds pass over — showing to the 
anxious observer abundent streaks and fila- 
ments of falling rain from their under sur- 
face, which dry up and dissolve in air, long 
before reaching the parched and needy soil. 

Such being the consequences of an impro- 
vident and indiscriminate clearing off of the 
timber, the inquiry naturally arises : "What 
shall we do to be saved?" The answer .is 
plain and obvious : "Plant Trees." 

A considerable area of the soil must, of | 
course, be opened for cultivation, but there 
are many places where nothing but trees can 
grow to advantage, and many more where 
timber would yield a larger profit than 
any other crop, and with far less expense 
of labor, regarding only the value of the wood 
grown, without reference to the ameliorating 
influences of woodland upon the adjacent 
fields. If our hill-tops, steep hill-sides, ravines, 
road sides and waste places were planted 
with timber adapted to the circumstances of 
the place ; if our existing timber lands were 
spared by taking out only the trees of mature 
growth, and by protecting the young trees, 
and if worn out and exhausted lands were 
sown and planted with trees, and fenced 
against cattle, we might as reasonably expect 
a return of profits from the investment, as 
when we sow in seed time, in soil properly 
prepared. 

The return may be slower, and one genera- 
tion may plant for the benefit of the next, 
. yet the growth would in most cases be worth 
more than the interest of the money invested, 
and the value of the timber crop at any stage 
of its growth, like the interest on a bond, at 
any time after its date, could be readily de- 
termined. 

In some European countries, vast forests 
are kept up by government. In England, in 
1871, about 40,000 acres were planted in oak 
for the wants of the navy a hundred years 
hence, and more is being done every year to 
guard against coming wants. Upon the con- 
tinent we find even a dozen schools of 
Forestry, where special instruction is impart- 
ed to the youth who are to take the future 



care of the public forests, and private plan- | 
tations. The graduates of.these schools go 
to their duties thoroughly instructed in every 
detail of forest management; are able to 
compute the present worth of a given piece 
' of Timber land, its rate of increase in value, 
the amount that may be taken annually with- 
out permanent injury to the forest, and the 
various scientific details upon which success in 
management depends. 

I am not aware that in the United States, 
attention has hitherto been more than inci- 
dentally given in any college, to the applica- 
tions of science to forest-culture, or that the 
student cananj'where in this State listen to a 
' single lecture upon this exceedingly practical 
subject, in the whole course of his studies. 
Lands owned by the government may be re- 
served, or sold subject to conditions, as the 
future interests of the nation may indicate 
to be wise and proper. Whatever is done in . 
this way must come within the jurisdiction of 
Congress, and of States that own lands. The 
State of New York has already parted with 
most of these titles. 

As for the planting of timber upon lands j 
already sold, this must begin with the ow- ' 
ners, who, under our tenures, are the sole 
judges of how these lands shall be cultivated, ^ 
! and what crops they shall produce. The i 
j profits of tree-culture must be widely taught, 
and thoroughly believed. Our State aud | 
local Agricultural Societies should in every 
way possible, disseminate correct informa- 
tion upon the subject, and encourage emula- 
tion by premiums for greatest amount of 
tree planting, and best methods of manage- 
ment. A young grove should be looked upon 
by its owner with pride, and a tree as a thing 
of beauty and of promise, to be cared for 
and cherished both for present ornament and 
future use. 

I will vftnturo to notice some of the bene- 
fits which it may be within the power of our 
State government to confer upon the future, 
in the care of timber lands. A considerable 
amount of waste land exists in various parts j 
of the State, and especially in the great 
northern wilderness, and much of this is re- 
turned annually to the Comptroller for non- 
payment of taxes. Should the proposed 
State Park find favor with the Legislature, 
as I earnestly hope it will, to this extent, it 
will secure the preservation of our timber 
lands. But there are also other tracts of 
waste land in various parts of the State of 



little or no value except for the timber that 
may grow upon them. As a general rule it 
! may be taken for granted, that where the 
owners allow wild lands to be sold, and do 
J not redeem them, such lands are worth noth- 
ing for cultivation. They may have been 
, already stripped of their timber, which was 
all the worth they had, and will not be again 
desirable until a new growth of trees springs 
up. Would it not be best to reserve these 
lands, and hold them as the property of the : 
State, instead of selling for the paltry prices | 
they would bring at a tax sale? Their imme- ! 
diate care, and protection against trespasses ; 
might be entrusted to the town authorities 
where located, and their condition reported ' 
annually at town meetings, and to some | 
central State office. The sale of timber and j 
other details might be so arranged as to se- 
I cure the benefits at a reasonable expense, and 
doubtless with as much profit as is now deriv- 
ed from time to time by their sale. 

The State may exercise its power in other 
' ways, as has been done to some extent in 
; other States, by exempting, for a limited 
1 time, from taxation lands planted and en- 
closed for timber growth. This feature ap- 
1 pears in the law passed in Maine in 1873, 
j which provides that owners planting any 
amount of land from which the forest has 
been entirely cut away, and cultivating for 
three years, the trees being not less than 3,000 
to the acre and well distributed, may, upon 
application to the Assessors, and upon filing 
a map and description of the location, and all 
the facts in relation to the growth and culti- 
vation of his grove, or incipient forest, be 
exempted from taxes on such land for twenty 
years, if kept alive and in thriving condition 
during that time. 

In Nebraska, the 10th of April is set apart 
by law as "Arbor Day" an agricultural festi- 
val devoted to the planting of trees. Its State 
Agricultural Society has oflFered a premium 
of |100 to the Parmer's Society of the country, 
and $35 to the individual planting the greatest 
number of trees on that day. 

A State owes it as a duty to its citizens that 
the public interest shall be protected at the j 
public cost, and on this principle it causes 
roads and bridges to be made and maintained 
by assessments often paj able in labor, and 
' always chargeable upon those supposed to 
: derive the greatest benefit from their use. 
I In like manner might it justly charge a tree- 
} tax, payable in the planting of trees by the 



owners of farming lands, or the commutation ' 
of this tax if paid in money, to be applied to 
this object, along the public highways. 

Necessity will, within a few years, teach our 
farmers the important fact, that a large part- 
of our fencing, might be saved, if they would 
confine their stock within the range allowed 
for pasturage, instead of keeping them out of 
the places where they are not wanted, much 
that is essential may bo made of stone walls 
and live hedges instead of wood. 

With the introduction of other materials for 
building in many cases, and the increased use 
of coal and peat as fuel, it may be within our 
means to produce within the State, a sufficient 
growth of wood to supply our wants til! the ' , 
latest period of time. But to secure this pro- 
vision public sentiment among our farming 
population must be strongly aroused and the 
sooner the necessities of the case are under- 
stood and acted upon, the easier will be the 
remedy and the greater the benefit. It will 
be easier to meet the difficulty half way, by 
anticipating tlie necessity, than to be driven 
to find a remedy when the want becomes an 
imperative demand. It is doubtless known 
to most present, that more than thirty years 
since, the subject of tree-culture was embraced 
in a survey of the zoological and botanical 
resources of the State of Massachusetts, and 
that in 1816, an able and careful report upon 
the native trees and shrubs of that State was 
made by Mr. George B. Emerson. An 
arboratumfor the naturalization of foreign 
trees, in that State is now being formed, and 
not only there, but in other States, especially 
in the west, attention has been prominently 
directed to this subject. In Europe, field and 
forest culture divides the attention of societies 
formed for the advancement of agriculture in 
its broadest sense, and as an example I may \ 
notice that in 1873, the Highland and Agri- | 
cultural society of Scotland oflFered not less j 
than fifteen premiums for essays and success- ! 
ful results upon special subjects of foresting. 
Permit me in conclusion to express the 
hope that this socity will take early and 
effectual measures to promote this object, by 
disseminating correct information, promoting 
discussion, and rewarding successful culture, ' 
and that ere long we may see local societies , 
emulating each other in the extent and value | 
of timber planted in the districts embraced j 
within their borders, until there .shall be no 
waste spot without its trees, and no farm | 
without sufficient shelter of woodland shade, j 

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